An efficient surface-surface intersection algorithm based on geometry characteristics

The problem of surface-surface intersection is one of the fundamental issues in numerous computer aided design applications. This article presents a reliable numerical algorithm for computing the intersection curves of two surfaces. The starting points for tracing are calculated by means of a combination of both subdivision and numerical techniques. In the tracing phase, the intersection curve is traced in a direction of the combination of its tangent vector and the direction of the geodesic curvature radius, and the stepsize is adjusted adaptively according to the curvature of the intersection curve. At singular points, however, only the tangent direction is taken into account. It is shown from the numerical examples that the proposed algorithm is efficient and flexible. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.